Posts tagged equipment

Twist, twist, crunch, grind “No!” It was my own fault; I had disobeyed one of my own golden rules and paid the price. A beach is probably the harshest of environments into which you can take camera equipment, with the possible exceptions of boiling battery acid or molten lava. In order to protect myself and my equipment whenever I go on a beach, I try to keep to three golden rules. 1. Always extend the lowest section of my tripod first. 2. Keep my camera bag on my back. 3. Wear wellington boots.

Wearing wellington boots keeps my feet dry and stops my walking boots from rotting away. Keeping my camera bag on my back stops me from wandering off and losing it, or an aggressive wave washing it away. Extending my tripod’s lower sections first keeps fixtures and fittings free from grit and grime. Unfortunately this is the rule that I had neglected on my most recent beach visit and now adjusting tripod leg length was akin to cleaning my teeth with sandpaper

Fortunately it’s an easy fix and one that I’ll explain here. My tripod is a Gitzo model, but other twist to lock tripods will probably work on a similar design. So the basic principle will be the same. The procedure is as follows:

This is the foot of my tripod showing the locking mechanism with the lowest section slightly extended.

Begin by unscrewing the locking nut fully. Once this is done the locking bushing can be seen. Take a close look at this as one edge may have a slight chamfer and will need to be refitted in the same way that it comes apart.

Pull the leg section fully out and two inner bushings will be revealed, that’s three in total. These are split and are easily removed by prising slightly open and sliding off the tripod leg.

That’s the disassembly completed. Clean each part, making sure all traces of grit and grime are removed. Pay particular attention to the thread on the outside of the tripod leg and inside the locknut. Once I’ve done this I lightly smear the bushings with grease (bicycle grease is my favourite as it is designed to resist being washed out – ideal if you are in the habit of placing your tripod in rivers or streams). Then it’s simply a case of reassembly, taking care to make sure that everything goes back into the same position as it came apart.

Repeat as necessary on each locknut assembly for super smooth operation to be restored.

Comments:

Garry: Thanks for this. I have a Gitzo that was in need of TLC. I didn’t realise it was so simple to make such a massive difference.

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